Broadcast

Twenty Twenty Television for ITV1/2, 3 June 2002 to 29 August 2006 (33 episodes in 4 series)

Synopsis

Reality show that began as an experiment to see if the youth of today could hack 1950s style national service, the first series was a success but subsequent series' have had a twist: now criminals sign themselves up to it to see if they can become better people.

Basically, it's army officers shouting at people for the best part of four weeks and seeing how our victims tolerate and deal with it and it's hugely entertaining.

The show has always traditionally split the group into two sections, red and blue, and competition has always been an element. This time round the show is rather more structured - the sections spend much of their time in each episode working towards a final challenge, the winning section of which gets to hold the "Pegasus Cup". Winning a challenge also means they get a reward. However losing a challenge means your section being punished whilst the others enjoy themselves - there are no prizes for second place.

The section which wins the most challenges gets to do a proper parachute jump at the end of the series.

Catchphrases

"There are no prizes for second place..."

Theme music

By Daniel Pemberton, and is tremendous. You can find it on his album TVPOPMUZIK.

Trivia

The show was originally called Lads' Army in the first series, it was then changed to Bad Lads' Army in the second series, Bad Lads' Army: Officer Class in the third series and Bad Lads' Army: Extreme in the fourth and final series.

Web links

The show published http://badlads.itv.com/ and http://www.itv.com/badladsarmy/ Neither site is online any more.